F 

5G3 
.5 


JOHNSON 

WHAT  THE  CANAL 
WILL  ACCOMPLISH 


BANCROFT 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


PHOTOGRAPHS 

IN  COLOR 

OF  THE 

PANAMA  CANAL 

(Reproduced  from  Scribner's  Magazine) 
(July,  1913) 


ISSUED  BY 


krall-Rand  Comp 

~v  > 


11  BROADWAY, 


NEW  YORK. 


WHAT    THE    CANAL    WILL 
ACCOMPLISH 

BY   EMORY    R.   JOHNSON 

Special  Commissioner  on  Traffic  and  Tolls 
Reprinted  from  Panama  Number,  SCRIBNER'S  MAGAZINE,  July,  igi3 


ROM  the  days  of  Columbus 
the  world  has  desired  a  ca- 
nal across  the  American 
isthmus,  and  since  the  ac- 
quisition of  California  and 
a  frontage  on  the  Pacific 
the  people  of  the  United  States  have  not 
ceased  to  consider  how  the  isthmian  bar- 
rier might  be  broken  through.  Now  that 
the  hope  is  about  to  be  realized,  what,  it 
may  well  be  asked,  is  it  that  the  United 
States  and  the  world  are  to  gain  by  the 
expenditure  of  the  $400,000,000  that  it 
has  cost  to  construct  the  water-way? 

The  Panama  Canal  has  frequently  been 
declared  to  be  a  commercial  convenience 
and  a  military  necessity  for  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  This  is  such  a  gen- 
eralization as  would  naturally  be  made  by 
the  military  expert,  and  by  those. states- 
men and  publicists  who  place  great  em- 
phasis upon  the  enhancement  of  the  mili- 
tary power  and  naval  prestige  of  the 
United  States.  This  is  not  the  point  of 
view  of  business  men  and  of  the  public 
generally;  they  regard  the  canal  as  a  high- 
way constructed  to  reduce  the  expenses 
and  risks  of  commerce,  to  make  possible 
the  expansion  of  industry,  and  to  enlarge 
the  profitable  employment  of  labor. 

It  is  for  peaceful  purposes  rather  than 
for  military  uses  that  the  canal  has  been 
built.  The  American  people  have  not 
been  animated  mainly  by  military  ambi- 
tions in  the  work  they  have  done  at  Pan- 
ama; their  primary  object  has  been  to 
promote  their  domestic  trade,  and  to  re- 
move the  handicap  under  which  they  now 
compete  with  the  people  of  Europe  for  the 
vast  commerce  of  the  Pacific. 

Nevertheless,  the  Panama  Canal  will  be 
a  valuable,  and  most  welcome,  military 
asset.  The  United  States  is  a  world- 
power  fronting  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific, 
upon  both  of  which  oceans  it  must  main- 
tain an  efficient  naval  force.  To-day  the 


fleets  that  defend  our  eastern  and  western 
seaboards  and  hold  the  aegis  of  their  pro- 
tection over  our  foreign  trade  are  thir- 
teen thousand  miles  apart;  they  cannot 
support  each  other;  each  must  be  strong 
enough  to  do  its  own  work,  and  to  fight, 
unaided,  its  own  battles. 

The  Panama  Canal  will  bring  the  Atlan- 
tic and  Pacific  squadrons  of  the  American 
navy  closer  to  each  other,  and  thus  greatly 
increase  the  mobility  of  the  fleets;  and  it 
will  accomplish  much  more  than  that.  The 
strong  fortifications  guarding  the  canal 
at  the  entrances  will  also  protect  coaling 
stations,  docks,  and  machine-shops.  The 
Canal  Zone  is  thus  made  a  secure  and  well- 
equipped  naval  base  at  which  fleets  may 
be  assembled,  from  which  a  squadron  may 
go  forth  to  strike  a  blow,  and  to  which  it 
may  confidently  return  for  coal,  supplies, 
and  necessary  repairs.  The  canal  will  thus 
practically  unite  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
fleets. 

Naval  experts  have  said  that  the  canal 
will  double  the  efficiency  of  the  American 
navy.  This  may  be  an  exaggeration,  but 
it  is  a  roughly  accurate  generalization. 
Of  course,  one  hardly  needs  to  be  a  mili- 
tary expert  to  realize  of  what  strategic 
value  it  will  be  to  the  United  States  to 
have  strong  fortifications  and  a  secure 
naval  base  at  the  sole  gateway  between 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific. 

By  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty,  as  first 
drafted,  the  United  States  was  not  to 
fortify  the  canal,  and  the  promise  was 
made  to  Great  Britain  that  treaties  neu- 
tralizing the  canal  would  be  entered  into 
with  other  nations.  The  Senate  wisely 
took  these  provisions  out  of  the  proposed 
treaty,  and  the  convention  that  was  sub- 
sequently negotiated  and  ratified  con- 
tained no  references  to  fortifications.  The 
existing  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty  stipu- 
lates that  "the  canal  shall  be  free  and 
open  to  the  vessels  of  commerce  and  war 


Copyright,  1013,  by  CHARLES  SCRIRNER'S  Soys 


38 


What  the  Canal  Will  Accomplish 


of  all  nations  " ;  but  the  United  States  is 
the  sole  guarantor  of  the  neutral  use  of  the 
water-way  by  the  vessels  of  all  nations 
upon  terms  of  entire  equality.  The 
United  States  is  free  to  take  full  advan- 
tage of  the  canal  as  a  military  asset,  and 
it  is  wisely  proceeding  with  the  erection  of 
fortifications  and  the  construction  of  coal- 
ing stations,  dry-docks,  and  repair-shops. 

Most  traffic  now  shipped  by  water  be- 
tween the  two  seaboards  of  the  United 
States  is  sent  via  the  isthmuses  of  Te- 
huantepec  and  Panama,  where  the  double 
handling  of  freight  and  the  haul  by  rail 
add  largely  to  the  costs  of  transportation, 
increase  losses  due  to  the  damage  of  goods, 
and  lengthen  the  time  that  goods  are  reg- 
ularly in  transit.  In  times  of  congested 
business,  goods  are  often  seriously  delayed 
in  transit,  and  shippers  or  consignees  suffer 
serious  losses. 

Whatever  may  be  the  effect  of  the  Pan- 
ama Canal  on  the  rates  charged  by  coast- 
wise carriers  upon  inter-coastal  traffic 
shipped  from  seaboard  and  inland  points, 
it  is  certain  that  the  costs  of  transporta- 
tion will  be  reduced  fully  one-third.  The 
American-Hawaiian  Steamship  Company 
pays  one-third  of  the  through  rate,  or  on 
the  average  about  $3.50  per  ton  of  2,000 
pounds,  to  the  Mexican  National  Railway 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  for 
transferring  cargo  from  the  ship  in  one 
ocean  to  the  vessel  in  the  other.  Through 
shipments  via  Panama  are  likewise  billed 
at  through  rates,  the  Panama  Railroad 
Company  taking  an  agreed  share  of  the 
total  rate.  The  average  cost  of  trans- 
ferring cargo  across  Panama,  from  one 
steamer  to  another,  is  fully  $3.00  per 
ton. 

This  saving  of  $3.00  to  $3.50  per  cargo- 
ton  will  be  only  partially  offset  by  the  tolls 
of  $1.20  per  net  vessel-ton  charged  for 
transit  through  the  canal.  A  vessel-ton 
is  100  cubic  feet  of  space,  while  a  cargo-ton 
may  be  either  2,000  pounds  of  weight 
(more  often  2,240  pounds  on  the  ocean), 
or  40  cubic  feet  of  space.  Freight- vessels 
can  transport  between  two  and  three  tons 
of  cargo  for  each  net  ton,  and  in  actual 
service  they  average  nearly  two  freight- tons 
per  vessel-ton.  Thus  the  tolls  that  have 
been  fixed  by  the  President  will  amount 
to  about  60  cents  per  ton  of  freight,  or, 
roughly,  one-fifth  the  present  average  cost 


of  transferring  goods  across  the  isthmuses 
of  Tehuantepec  and  Panama. 

The  canal  will  do  much  more  than  to 
provide  a  cheaper  route  for  existing  traffic. 
By  making  possible  the  through  shipment 
of  freight  without  transfer  it  will  permit 
the  movement  of  a  heavy  tonnage  of  lum- 
ber, ore,  coal,  and  other  commodities, 
which  can  seldom  bear  the  expense  of  a 
double  handling  en  route.  The  canal  will 
bring  into  the  channels  of  commerce  the 
basic  materials  produced  in  large  quanti- 
ties by  the  extractive  industries  of  the 
southern  and  western  sections  of  the 
United  States.  The  expenses  of  trade 
will  be  reduced  and  its  volume  expanded. 

This,  at  least,  is  possible  and  probable; 
but  it  will  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  the 
freight  rates  charged  by  the  carriers  coast- 
wise between  the  two  seaboards  of  the 
United  States  will  not  necessarily  be  low- 
ered by  the  amount  which  the  canal  will 
reduce  the  costs  of  transportation.  This 
might  happen  if  the  rates  were  deter- 
mined solely,  or  mainly,  by  the  cost  of 
the  service;  but  cost  is  not  the  sole  basis, 
nor  the  principal  determinant,  of  rate 
schedules.  Keen  and  unrestrained  com- 
petition among  the  steam-ship  lines  would 
cause  the  carriers  to  adjust  their  charges 
with  reference  to  the  costs  of  service;  but 
the  competition  of  the  coastwise  lines 
will  be  effectively  regulated  by  means  of 
"conferences,"  or  organizations,  of  the 
lines.  The  rates  between  the  two  sea- 
boards will  be  the  same  by  all  the  rival 
lines,  and  the  charges  for  most  of  the 
freight  are  more  apt  to  be  what  the  traffic 
will  bear  than  to  be  what  the  costs  of 
the  service  would  compel  the  carriers  to 
charge. 

The  coastwise  steam-ship  lines  will  have 
to  meet  outside  competition.  The  ex- 
ceptionally large  producer  or  shipper  of 
lumber,  coal,  ore,  or  grain  will,  or  may, 
transport  his  goods  in  vessels  which  he 
owns  or  charters,  and  his  transportation 
expenses  will  depend  upon  the  cost  of 
owning  and  operating  his  vessels,  or  upon 
the  rates  which  he  must  pay  to  charter 
ships.  Charter  rates  are  truly  competi- 
tive. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected,  however,  that 
the  individual  vessel  owned  or  chartered 
by  the  producer  or  trader  will  do  much  to 
regulate  the  rates  of  the  steam-ship  lines. 


What  the  Canal  Will  Accomplish 


Only  a  few  commodities  can  be  handled 
in  full  vessel-loads,  and  but  comparatively 
few  individuals  and  corporations  will  buy 
and  sell  in  cargo-lots.  Most  of  the  traffic 
between  the  two  seaboards  will  be  carried 
by  the  regular  steam-ship  lines,  which  will 
probably  serve  ninety-nine  out  of  every 
hundred  shippers. 

The  transcontinental  railroads  and  the 
coastwise  carriers  will  be  traffic  rivals,  but 
it  remains  to  be  seen  how  actively  they 
will  compete.  Will  the  railroads  make 
large  reductions  in  their  coast-to-coast 
rates  to  keep  traffic  from  going  coastwise, 
or  will  the  rail  lines  maintain  their  through 
rates  at  the  present  level,  and  deliberately 
lose  such  shipments  as  can  secure  satis- 
factory service  and  lower  rates  from  the 
coastwise  carriers? 

If  the  transcontinental  railroads  do  not 
cut  their  through  rates,  they  may  lose  ten 
per  cent  (but  not  more  than  ten  per  cent) 
of  their  tonnage  moving  between  the  east- 
ern and  western  sections  of  the  United 
States;  if  they  lower  the  through  rates, 
they  will  not  only  decrease  their  revenues 
from  nine- tenths  of  their  through  business, 
but,  because  of  the  interdependence  of  in- 
termediate and  through  tariffs,  their  en- 
tire schedule  of  charges  must  be  modified 
and  their  revenues  therefrom  must  be 
lowered. 

Again,  should  the  railroads  decide  that 
their  net  profits  will  be  larger  if  they  main- 
tain their  present  rate  schedules  and  lose 
some  of  the  through  traffic,  will  the  coast- 
wise steam-ship  lines,  or  rather  their  "  con- 
ferences," fix  their  rates  with  reference  to 
the  stable  schedules  of  railroad  tariffs, 
making  the  charges  by  water  such  differ- 
entials under  the  railroad  rates  as  will 
secure  for  the  steam-ship  lines  the  volume 
of  traffic  required  to  fill  the  vessels  in 
service? 

The  known  facts  as  to  rate-making  by 
railroads  and  by  steam-ship  lines  do  not 
presage  keen  competition  among  the 
steam-ship  lines,  or  between  the  coastwise 
carriers  and  the  railroads.  It  is  not  prob- 
able that  the  steam-ship  lines  operated 
through  the  canal  will  compete  so  actively 
with  each  other  and  with  the  railroads  as 
to  bring  the  rates  by  water  as  low  as  the 
cost  of  service  will  allow.  It  is  rather  to 
be  expected  that  the  steam-ship  lines  will 
so  effectually  restrict  their  competition 


with  each  other  as  to  be  able  to  fix  and 
maintain  their  rates,  not  primarily  with 
reference  to  the  cost  of  the  service,  but 
mainly  with  regard  to  what  the  traffic  will 
bear. 

The  coastwise  rates,  for  the  most  part, 
will  be  what  the  shippers  can  and  will  pay 
for  transportation  by  water  instead  of  by 
rail.  The  rates  now  charged  by  way  of 
the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  are,  in  fact, 
adjusted  with  reference  to  the  tariffs  by 
rail.  This  policy  is  the  one  that  the  coast- 
wise carriers  may  be  expected  to  maintain 
after  the  opening  of  the  canal. 

This  analysis  does  not  point  toward  a 
revolution  in  coast-tc-coast  rates  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  lower  costs  of  transportation  by 
the  canal.  Rates,  however,  on  many  com- 
modities will  be  lower.  Cost  of  service  is 
not  without  its  influence  upon  rates — and 
the  larger  volume  of  traffic,  and  the  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  steam-ship  lines, 
will  affect  the  policy  of  the  coastwise  car- 
riers in  making  rates.  Competition  may 
be  regulated  and  mitigated,  but  it  cannot 
be  eliminated;  and  much  the  same  is  true 
of  public  sentiment.  The  pressure  of 
public  opinion,  exerted  by  business  or- 
ganizations and  by  the  newspapers,  and 
embodied  in  laws  against  trusts  and  mo- 
nopolies, is  not  without  influence  upon 
the  action  taken  by  the  makers  of  rates. 

Competition  alone  will  not  insure  cheap 
transportation  via  the  Panama  Canal. 
The  benefits  to  which  the  public  as  a  whole 
is  entitled  will  not  be  secured  merely  by 
opening  the  canal,  and  by  designating 
what  carriers  may  and  may  not  use  the 
water-way.  It  will  be  found  necessary  to 
apply  to  the  regulation  of  the  services  and 
rates  of  the  regular  coastwise  lines  the 
principles  that  have  been  effectively  ap- 
plied to  the  railroads.  A  public  demand 
for  the  regulation  of  coastwise  carriers  is 
one  of  the  results  that  will  follow  from  the 
opening  of  the  Panama  Canal. 

The  simplest  and  most  concrete  meas- 
ure of  the  service  rendered  by  the  Panama 
Canal  will  be  the  tonnage  of  ships  that 
use  the  water-way.  This  can  be  forecast 
with  a  fair  degree  of  certainty,  because  it 
is  possible  to  ascertain  how  much  traffic 
now  moves  by  routes  that  would  be  aban- 
doned in  favor  of  the  canal  route,  and  it  is 
easy  to  find  out  how  fast  this  available 
canal  traffic  is  increasing. 


NOTE 

•Routes  for  Full-Powered  S£eam  Vessels. 
•  Rentes  for  Sailing  Vessels. 
Distances  in-Nautical  .Miles. 


The  history  of  the  Suez  Canal,  the  great 
inter-oceanic  highway  with  which  the 
Panama  Canal  is  closely  comparable,  is  an 
open  book.  Last  year,  5,373  ships,  hav- 
ing a  net  tonnage  of  20,275,000  tons, 
passed  through  the  Suez  water-way.  The 
growth  of  tonnage  in  ten  years  had  been 
more  than  seventy  per  cent. 

The  shipping  using  the  Panama  Canal 
annually  during  the  first  year  or  two  of  its 
operation,  that  is  in  1915  and  1916,  will 
amount  to  about  10,500,000  net  tons.  At 
the  end  of  ten  years  the  tonnage  will 
doubtless  have  reached  17,000,000  net 
tons.  The  prospect  thus  is  that  the  Pan- 
ama Canal  will  start  with  less  than  half 
the  tonnage  which  will  then  be  making 
use  of  the  Suez  Canal.  Moreover,  it  will 
be  a  long  time  before  the  Panama  Canal 
catches  up  with  the  Suez  water-way  in 
volume  of  traffic.  Should  the  Suez  ton- 
nage continue  to  increase  at  the  present 
rate,  the  volume  of  shipping  served  by  the 
Suez  Canal  in  1925  will  be  double  that 
passing  through  the  Panama  water-way. 
It  is  hardly  probable  that  the  Suez  ton- 
nage will  continue  to  increase  at  its  pres- 
40 


ent  high  rate;  while  it  may  well  happen 
that  the  stimulating  effect  of  the  Panama 
Canal  upon  industry  and  trade  has  been 
underestimated.  Eventually,  at  the  end 
of  two  or  three  decades,  let  us  say,  the 
traffic  at  Panama  may  equal  or  exceed 
that  at  Suez. 

The  Panama  Canal  is  always  thought 
of,  first  of  all,  with  reference  to  the  com- 
merce between  the  two  seaboards  of  the 
United  States ;  yet  it  is  probable  that  only 
one-tenth  of  the  ships  that  pass  through 
the  canal  in  1915  will  be  employed  in  the 
inter-coastal  trade.  The  canal  may  so 
assist  the  growth  of  this  coast-to-coast 
traffic  as  to  cause  it  to  double  in  a  decade; 
but,  even  so,  it  will  amount  to  only  one- 
eighth  of  the  total  tonnage  of  shipping 
passing  the  Panama  locks. 

The  foreign  trade  of  the  United  States 
will  employ  a  third  of  the  ships  that  use 
the  Panama  Canal ;  and  the  trade  that  is 
strictly  foreign  to  the  United  States,  that 
does  not  touch  our  shores,  will  be  served 
by  more  than  half  of  all  the  vessels  that 
take  the  Panama  short  cut  between  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific. 


TRADE  ROUTES 

WITH 

DISTANCES  BY  EXISTING  LINES. 

AND  BY  THE 

PANAMA  CANAL 


Ll_  MATB  tMSfCa  CO.,  M.Y. 


The  west  coast  of  South  America  orig- 
inates a  large  tonnage.  Two  million  five 
hundred  thousand  weight-tons  of  nitrate 
are  now  shipped  from  northern  Chili  each 
year,  four-fifths  of  it  being  sent  to  Europe, 
and  one-fifth  to  the  United  States.  Cop- 
per shipments  from  the  west  coast  of  South 
America  are  also  important,  and  as  soon  as 
the  canal  is  opened  large  quantities  of 
iron  ore  are  to  be  brought  to  the  United 
States  "and  taken  to  Europe  by  way  of 
the  canal.  The  exports  of  Chilian  grain 
will  also  be  larger  after  the  costs  of  trans- 
portation have  been  reduced  by  the  canal. 

Under  present  conditions  most  of  this 
large  west-coast  South  American  commerce 
is  secured  by  Europe.  The  tonnage  of 
shipping  serving  the  European  trade  with 
western  South  America  is  six  times  that 
employed  in  the  commerce  of  the  eastern 
seaboard  of  the  United  States  with  that 
section  of  the  world.  This  should  grad- 
ually change  as  the  result  of  the  opening 
of  the  canal,  which  will  bring  the  United 
States  nearer  than  Europe  to  western  South 
America  by  the  distance  across  the  north 
Atlantic. 


Australia  and  New  Zealand  have  a  large 
commerce,  of  which  the  United  States  has 
a  fair  share  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
eastern  part  of  the  United  States,  the  sec- 
tion from  which  most  of  our  manufactures 
are  exported,  and  to  which  the  wool,  hides, 
and  other  materials  from  Australasia  are 
imported,  is  farther  from  Australia  than 
is  Europe.  The  Panama  Canal  will  place 
the  United  States  and  Europe  on  a  par,  as 
far  as  distance  is  a  controlling  factor,  in 
competing  for  the  commerce  of  Austral- 
asia. 

The  same  is  true  of  Japan,  China,  and 
the  Philippines.  The  short  route  from 
Europe  to  the  Orient  is  via  the  Suez  Canal ; 
the  short  course  from  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board of  the  United  States  to  Japan  and 
most  of  China  will  be  by  way  of  Panama. 
A  ten-knot  freight-steamer  will  be  able  to 
make  the  run  from  New  York  to  Yoko- 
hama via  Panama  in  fifteen  days  less 
time  than  it  now  takes  by  way  of  Suez. 
Hong-Kong  and  Manila,  however,  will  be 
equally  distant  from  New  York  via  Suez 
and  Panama.  They  will  be  in  the  envia- 
ble position  of  being  served  both  by  the 


42 


What  the  Canal  Will  Accomplish 


vessels  that  take  the  Suez  route  and  by 
those  that  are  operated  by  way  of  Panama. 

The  Panama  Canal  is  being  constructed 
to  shorten  the  distance  and  time  of  ocean 
voyages;  but  it  should  be  remembered 
that  distance  is  only  one  of  several  factors 
that  may  determine  the  routes  taken  by 
vessels.  It  often  happens  that  the  longer 
of  two  alternative  routes  is  more  profita- 
ble, because  of  lower  costs  for  fuel,  and  of 
greater  opportunities  for  trading  at  in- 
termediate ports.  Fortunately,  the  ex- 
penses for  coal  and  fuel  oil  will  be  less  via 
Panama  than  by  most  of  the  alternative 
routes;  indeed,  the  low  fuel  costs  via  the 
Panama  route  and  at  the  canal,  where  the 
United  States  will  sell  coal  and  oil  at 
reasonable  prices,  will  greatly  assist  the 
canal  in  competing  for  traffic  free  to  move 
by  some  alternative  route. 

Another  vital  fact  that  should  not  be 
overlooked  is  that  transportation  costs  do 
not  alone  determine  which  country  shall 
succeed  in  commercial  competition.  At 
the  present  time  the  commercial  and 
financial  relations  of  Pacific  countries  are 
mainly  with  Europe,  not  with  the  United 
States.  It  has  been  only  a  few  years  since 
American  capital  began  to  be  invested  in 
foreign  countries.  The  industries  of  west- 
ern South  America,  of  Australia,  and  the 
Orient  have  been  developed  mainly  by 
European  capital.  Under  these  condi- 
tions, European  manufacturers  have  a 
distinct  advantage  over  American  pro- 
ducers in  competing  for  the  trade  of  most 
Pacific  countries. 

Similarly,  the  merchants  of  Great 
Britain,  Germany,  and  other  European 
countries  have  long-established  trade  re- 
lations with  the  Pacific.  Their  mercan- 
tile houses  have  outposts  in  South  Amer- 
ica, Australia,  and  the  Orient.  It  will  not 
be  easy  quickly  to  shift  the  merchandising 
business  from  European  to  American 
houses. 

The  transfer  of  trade  from  Great  Britain, 
Germany,  and  other  European  countries 
to  the  United  States  will  also  be  hampered 
by  the  fact  that  the  banking  connections 
of  countries  on  both  sides  of  the  Pacific 
are  mainly  with  Europe.  Time  will  be 
required,  and  probably  our  laws  will  have 
to  be  changed,  to  enable  New  York  and 
other  banking  centres  of  the  United  States 
to  be  of  large  service  to  American  mer- 


chants in  extending  their  trade  with  Pa- 
cific countries.  Naturally,  European  mer- 
chants, trading  with  Pacific  countries,  will 
continue  to  make  use  of  the  banking  facili- 
ties of  London,  Paris,  and  Berlin.  One  of 
the  problems  to  be  worked  out  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  trade  of  the  United 
States  with  Pacific  countries  is  that  of  sub- 
stituting American  for  European  bank- 
ing arrangements. 

The  Panama  Canal  will  assist  in  trans- 
ferring a  growing  and  increasing  share  of 
the  trade  of  western  South  America  and 
of  trans-Pacific  countries  from  Europe  to 
the  United  States;  but  the  shifting  of 
commercial  connections  will  be  gradual. 
There  will  be  no  sudden  revolution  in  the 
trade  relations  of  Pacific  countries.  In 
estimating  the  influence  of  the  Panama 
Canal  upon  the  development  of  the  trans- 
Pacific  trade  of  the  United  States  the  fact 
must  not  be  ignored  that  the  traders  of 
Europe,  who  have  long  used  the  Suez  Ca- 
nal, will  have  the  advantage  of  a  prior  oc- 
cupation of  the  field.  Europe's  hold  upon 
the  trade  of  the  Far  East  is  so  firm  that 
the  United  States  cannot  hope  suddenly 
to  wrest  the  rich  prize  from  the  merchants 
and  manufacturers  of  Europe. 

Since  the  Spanish-American  War,  which 
occurred  only  fifteen  years  ago,  the  United 
States  has  been  drawn  more  and  more  into 
world  politics.  Every  event  and  every 
agency  that  increases  intercourse  between 
the  United  States  and  other  countries,  that 
broadens  and  multiplies  American  trade 
relations,  enhances  not  only  the  opportu- 
nity but  also  the  responsibility  of  the 
United  States  as  one  of  the  leaders  among 
the  nations  of  the  world.  Our  country 
cannot,  and  doubtless  does  not  desire  to, 
avoid  taking  upon  itself  larger  interna- 
tional obligations. 

The  Panama  Canal  will,  of  a  certainty, 
bring  the  United  States  into  closer  touch 
with  the  Latin  countries  of  North  America 
and  western  South  America;  indeed,  Mex- 
ico and  Central  America  will  be  brought 
within  the  circuit  of  the  active  route  by 
which  the  coastwise  trade  between  the 
two  seaboards  of  the  United  States  will  be 
carried  on.  Commerce  and  travel  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  the  Pacific 
shores  of  South  America  will,  in  a  few 
decades,  increase  manyfold. 

More  frequent  intercourse  and  the  larger 


l-'roin  tin  autochrome  photograph  !<y  l-\m'e  //,I>T/.M>;/.     (V/M  ri^.'it.  11)13. 

I.—  THl.  GREAT  GATES  TO  'I  Hi:  I.IK  K 

— "  Panama  Canal  in  Construction," 


"*&*U  ' 


I 


m 


1 


What  the  Canal  Will  Accomplish 


43 


commerce  between  the  United  States  and 
Latin- American  countries  should  prove  to 
be  mutually  advantageous,  politically  as 
well  as  economically.  In  its  relations 
with  all  countries  south  of  the  Rio  Grande 
the  United  States  is,  and  has  every  reason 
for  continuing  to  be,  politically  disinter- 
ested. The  autonomous  political  and  ec- 
onomic development  of  Latin- American 
countries  is  the  desire  of  the  United  States. 
Whatever  assistance  the  United  States 
may  be  able  to  render  its  neighbors  will 
be  given  in  a  cordial  spirit,  untainted  by 
any  selfish  desire  to  acquire  dominion  or 
to  exercise  political  control  over  any 
country. 

Nor  will  the  people  of  the  United  States 
be  unaware  of  the  fact  that  closer  political 
relations  with  other  American  countries 
will  be  helpful  to  the  United  States.  This 
country  possesses  a  monopoly  neither  of 
political  wisdom  nor  of  the  elements  of 
civilization.  Co-operation  between  Latin 
and  Saxon  countries  will  be  mutually  ben- 
eficial. The  Panama  Canal  promises  to 
promote  Pan- Americanism,  to  bring  Amer- 
ican countries  nearer  together  in  thought 
and  feeling,  and  to  promote  trade  in  cult- 
ure as  well  as  commodities. 

This  is  true  in  spite  of  the  necessary  ad- 
mission that  the  connection  of  the  United 
States  with  the  canal  has  temporarily 
estranged  one  Latin-American  country. 
This  is  to  be  regretted.  The  people  of  the 
United  States,  it  is  certain,  have  not  de- 


sired to  wrong  Colombia,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  both  countries  will  place  be- 
fore each  other  and  the  world  the  full 
record  of  their  action.  If  either  party  has 
done  wrong,  it  must  be  large  enough  to 
admit  its  wrong-doing.  In  that  way  alone 
can  mutual  understanding  and  confidence 
be  restored. 

It  is  possible  that  the  chief  accomplish- 
ment of  the  Panama  Canal  may  be  one  of 
which  the  people  of  the  United  States  will 
scarcely  be  aware.  The  main  obstacle  to 
the  successful  development  of  our  federal 
government  has  been  sectional  strife.  A 
country  of  continental  area,  comparable 
in  size  to  Europe,  and  having  within  its 
borders  great  diversities  of  climate,  of  in- 
dustrial activities,  and  of  population  ele- 
ments, is  governed  by  the  will  of  the  whole 
people.  In  times  past  the  clash  of  sec- 
tions has  been  so  severe  as  nearly  to  dis- 
rupt the  government. 

Fortunately,  sectional  strife,  though  not 
at  an  end,  is  no  longer  violent.  The  rail- 
road, the  telegraph,  and  the  telephone 
have  made  political  unity  possible  and 
certain;  but  every  agency  that  more  close- 
ly unites  the  different  parts  of  the  country 
makes  possible  better  and  more  effective 
government.  The  Panama  Canal,  by  in- 
creasing the  economic  interdependence  of 
the  East  and  the  West,  and  of  the  West 
and  the  South,  will  promote  the  political 
unity  as  well  as  the  economic  solidarity  of 
the  country. 


PANAMA  ADVERTISING  SECTION 


The  Drills  tlnat 


APPROXIMATELY   one  half  of   the   material  excavated 
JL\.   from  the  Panama  Canal  was  solid  rock,  every  yard  of 
which  had  to  be  drilled  and  blasted  before  removal.     A 
competent  engineer  estimates  that  all  these  drill  holes,  if 
placed  end  to  end,  would  equal  the  length  of  the  earth's 
diameter  from  pole  to  pole,  with  1,500  miles  added;  that 
the  cuttings  from  these  holes  would  equal  the  amount 
of  material  taken  from  a  shaft  3^  miles  deep  with  the 
cross-section  of  the  Simplon  Tunnel;  and  that  these 
cuttings  piled  in  a  pyramid  would  over- 
top one  of  the  larger  pyramids  of  Ghizeh. 


By  far  the  larger  percentage  of  this  drilling 
was  done  with  the  more  than  six  hundred 
*  Inger soil-Rand   Rock   Drills   used   on   the 

Canal.  Three  hundred  of  these  were  brought 

over  from  the  old  French  regime.  And  when  increasing  activities  demanded  more 
drills,  it  was  natural  that  the  largest  orders  should  go  to  the  builders  of  the 
splendid  old  drills  of  the  French  days,  until  more  Ingersoll-Rand  Drills  were  in 
use  on  the  Canal  than  of  all  others  combined.  And  the  modern  drills  surpassed 
their  older  prototypes  in  their  capabilities. 


IIVGERSOLL  — 


11  Broadway 


York 


Reprinted  from  the  advertising  Pases,  Panama  Number,  SCRIBNER'S  MAGAZINE 


SCRIBNER'S  MAGAZINE 


Dug  the  Canal 


THE  FACT  IS  that  Ingersoll-Rand  Rock 
Drills  made  the  Panama  Canal  possible; 
for  the  methods  that  excavated  the  rock  for  the 
pyramids  could  not  be  tolerated  in  the  twentieth 
century.  And  among  the  names  of  those  who 
made  the  Canal  an  accomplished  fact  must  be 
placed  those  of  Simon  Ingersoll,  Addison  C. 
Rand  and  Henry  C.  Sergeant — the  three  men 
who  made  the  rock  drill  a  commercial  success 
and  whose  work  culminated  in  the  modern 
Ingersoll-Rand  Drills — the  drills  which  pierced 
the  mountain  range  at  Culebra  and  pushed  the 
Canal  through  solid  rock  at  Bas  Obispo. 


RAND   COMPANY 

Offices  in  All  Principal   Cities  of  tire  World 


Reprinted  from  the  advertising  pages,  Panama  Number,  SCRIBNER'S  MAGAZINE 


PANAMA  ADVERTISING  SECTION 


CAMERON  PUMPS 

AND 

THE  PANAMA  CANAL 


Probably  very  few  among  those  who  know  Cameron  Pumps  (and  what  engineer 
or  contractor  does  not)  know  also  that  there  was  what  might  be  called  a  military 
period  in  its  history.  Away  back  in  1863,  when  the  business  was  only  three  years  old, 
A.  S.  Cameron  had  as  a  partner  William  Sewell,  a  U.  S.  Army  engineer.  Together 
they  perfected  and  produced  the  Sewell  and  Cameron  Crank-and-Flywheel  Pump  which 
had  a  large  use  in  the  U.  S.  Navy  and  merchant  marine  of  that  day.  Therefore  it  is 
peculiarly  fitting  that  the  Army  Engineers  who  have  carried  the  Panama  Canal  to 
practical  completion  should  give  to  Cameron  Pumps  such  recognition  as  to  use  them 
on  some  of  the  most  important  work  of  the  canal.  During  construction,  the  simple, 
rugged,  ever-dependable  Cameron  Steam  Pump  bore  its  share  of  the  burden  of  hand- 
ling water,  and  in  the  permanent  machinery  equipment  for  the  great  Canal  Locks,  sixty 
splendid  Cameron  Centrifugal  Pumps  appear.  Nine  of  these  will  take  care  of  drainage  and 
overflow  water  which  may  accumulate  in  sumps  placed  for  the  purpose.  Three  will 
be  ready  to  empty  the  big  culverts  when  it  is  necessary  to  inspect  or  repair  them. 
Forty-eight  will  operate  the  chain  fenders  which  will  prevent  an  unruly  ocean  liner  in 
the  locks  from  poking  an  inquisitive  nose  through  the  great  lock  gates— meaning  a 
shut-down  of  traffic  while  damages  are  repaired.  When  one  considers  that  the 
safety  of  the  locks  is  the  key  to  the  Canal  operation,  one  realizes  the  responsibility 
placed  upon  these  Cameron  Pumps.  In  the  world's  greatest  engineering  triumph, 
these  pumps  are  worthy  memorials  to  the  Scotch  inventor  and  the  American  army 
engineer  who  established  the  Cameron  standard  of  quality. 


A.  S.  Cameron  Steam  Pump  Works, 

11  BROADWAY,    NEW  YORK. 


13  1485 


